A file photo in 2008 shows the Apple logo outside the Apple Store in Munich, Germany.這張二○○八年的照片，是在德國慕尼黑蘋果商店的蘋果商標。

Photo: EPA照片：歐新社

Enraged Chinese shoppers pelted Apple Inc’s flagship Beijing store with eggs and shoving matches broke out with police on Jan. 13 when customers were told the store would not begin sales of the iPhone 4S as scheduled.

Apple said later after the fracas at its store in Beijing’s trendy Sanlitun district that it would halt all retail sales of the latest iPhone in China for the time being, but said the phones would be available online.

An announcer with a bullhorn told the Sanlitun store crowd around 7am, before sunrise, that the phones would not go on sale as planned and that they should leave. As the crowd became more unruly, scuffles broke out between security staff and shoppers, many of whom had waited overnight in freezing weather. Police moved in and dragged some people away. Photos appeared on the Chinese blogosphere of a man who had brought raw eggs in a plastic bag, handing them out before people heaved them at the store’s glass windows.